Epidemic might break out in Tacloban

02:46 AM November 30th, 2013

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November 30th, 2013 02:46 AM

If the piles of garbage and bodies still buried in the rubble and garbage are not collected, there might soon be an epidemic in Tacloban City and other places that were battered by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

The streets were still littered with uncollected garbage and the smell of dead bodies was everywhere on Nov. 25-27, more than two weeks after the supertyphoon.

On those dates, a 49-member medical mission from Manila that I organized gave free consultations, distributed medicines and even cooked food for some victims.

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The stench of garbage and dead bodies lingered when my first medical mission left the city on Nov. 13 after a three-day stint.

It remained two weeks after my second medical mission returned to the city, only this time it was much worse.

As this newspaper is supposed to be read at the breakfast table, I wouldn’t go any further in describing the olfactory and visual experience members of the second medical mission went through in Tacloban City and Tanauan, Palo and San Miguel towns.

The government should clean up the mess left by Yolanda, otherwise those who survived the strongest storm ever recorded would die of an epidemic like cholera.

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More people would die if there is no mass immunization of the survivors for tetanus and leptospirosis.

Tetanus and leptospirosis are both deadly.

Tetanus is acquired through rusty objects like nails, wood splinters or galvanized iron that pierce the skin, causing wounds.

Many of these objects are found in the rubble of fallen buildings all over Eastern Visayas.

Leptospirosis, on the other hand, is acquired when someone with an open wound wades in waters mixed with rat urine.

Rats feast on uncollected garbage in the streets of Tacloban City and other areas.